Persimmon stopped building our house - what can I do?

redcar_2

Oooh Squat you can really be so pessimistic that I'm not sure its always helpful.

OP this sounds like a really nasty situation. I think'd long and hard about what you want as an outcome, cetainly as many above say forcing them to complete may not (if you are even able to) be the best outcome for you. I'd be thinking about getting them to refund deposit and perhaps pay for your costs but then that would still mean you finding somewhere else and may be a little on the optimistic side - might prices have dropped elsewhere enough to off-set the fact that you might lose your deposit??

Good luck.

CFC

OP, I would think very seriously about what outcome you want.

I think that Persimmon would have problems hanging onto your deposit in the circumstances and as they have not even started work properly on your house yet, if I were you I'd be trying to get away from this one.

Go back and speak to your solicitor and tell her that you do not believe that the contract covers Persimmon just deciding not to build houses right now. Ask her opinion. If she agrees with you then instruct her to take this further and to set a time limit by which time the house will be built or your deposit will be returned: and to sue if neither are delivered.

If she does not agree with you then advise her that you have serious concerns re problems in the legal contract that she did not raise with you, and that you may need to raise this with the Law Society.

To be honest, you may need to change solicitors and also complain to the Law Society. All the time that you have had to rent, and will still have to go on renting, is money lost that you had not planned on.

Premier_2

SquatNow wrote: »

...At worst (and more likely) - they will find themselves unable to get a mortgage as persimmon have dropped the prices of the remaining houses in the meantime...

One would hope the solicitor acting for the buyer (at at least should be!) at least ensured the funds were available to complete the sale at the contract price before allowing any exchange of contracts. e.g. an agreed mortgage offer was in place before exchanging.

Whilst it is true mortgages agreed in principle are being withdrawn prior to the official offer, mortgage companies cannot withdraw an official offer.


Btw, if persimmon doesn't build the other houses, they will probably just sell the land to another developer. That developer often ends up submitting alternative planning permission to suit their needs. Maybe the buyer ends up with their half of the only semi in a select, desireable area surrounded by 10 bedroomed, multi-million pound mansions!

mrsf77

I have spoken to the mortgage company and they have said that we can have the mortgage we agreed in principal for a year, after this time we would have to apply for another mortgage (we agreed it in Feb).
I have spoken to the solicitor this morning and Persimmon/Charles Church have not replied to her (anyone here surprised???) so she is going to chase them up, they cannot use the reason they have given to stop building our property. She has confirmed this with her companies litigation dept and is going to speak to a barisster (sp?) and seek advice from them. She said she hasnt dealt with a case like this before but feels there are a lot more to come.

The development we were hoping to live is in is almost completed and I think the houses in the area where we are buying from was one of the last areas to be done. The row opposite us was completed last year. I am disapointed because it is a lovely development but we cannot hang on indefinitely waiting for them to make a bigger profit, not unless they want to share it that is!

mrs_deadline

Be aware of one more wild card - even if the mortgage deal lasts a year some lenders insist on a new valuation after 6 months. Good luck and don't let any of them off the hook till you've got a fair outcome.

poppysarah

Could they offer you one already built but not sold?

ruggedtoast

No matter what happens I am never ever going to buy off-plan.

machofairy

Exactly how much deposit have you paid? Or was there a "5% deposit paid" incentive like many new-builds?

You could walk away and lose little if its the latter.
In current situation, seems the bset option.

mrsf77

poppysarah wrote: »

Could they offer you one already built but not sold?

All the plots that have been built have already been sold and have people living in them well part from their £500,000 show home which is nearly twice the price of the house we were buying!

mrsf77

machofairy wrote: »

Exactly how much deposit have you paid? Or was there a "5% deposit paid" incentive like many new-builds?

You could walk away and lose little if its the latter.
In current situation, seems the bset option.

We have paid £1000 reservation fee plus when we exchanged contracts they wanted 10%, I managed to negociate it down to 5%, this is still over £13000.

When we chose our extras they wanted us to start paying for them I'm glad I told them I wasnt prepared to do this until they were close to fitting them!

I have friends that have bought off plan 3 times and they have never had a problem, I just think we were unlucky, if the financial climate hadnt changed we'd probably have moved in by now.